S.N.C.A. Volume 1 Issue Number 9 October 2007
Surge Narrows Community Association
Annual General Meeting
Saturday, November 3, 2007
11:00am
Murray Hall (gym)
Agenda: Reports, presentation of financial statements, election of officers.
Coffee, tea, snacks on arrival. Lunch will be served after the meeting for $5.00/plate, children $2.50.
Everyone welcome! (Only members can vote.)
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YOGA WITH RIEKO
Another relaxing, deep breathing season of yoga is flowing into a new season. Rieko lead 26 yoga classes at Surge in the past year for a total of 220 ‘person sessions’. The popular activity on Wednesdays, 12:30 to 2:30 continues to draw both regulars and drop-ins. Rieko tailors the activity to suit the abilities of whatever group shows up, so everyone is challenged but not overextended.
Rieko collected Building Use fees for this activity and has recently submitted $220.00 to SNCA. Although these fees are only $1/person/use, they add up over time and are a significant help in maintaining the buildings. Thanks to all the stretchers for paying up.
“Keep breathing, it’s the most important part!”
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NEWS FROM SURGE NARROWS SCHOOL AND THE PARENTS’ ADVISORY COMMITTEE (PAC)
Last month, Anne Graham held a big Garage Sale on Quadra and she has donated over $1,200 to the Surge Narrows PAC – Many thanks to Anne and the volunteers who helped out and to all islanders for their support.
Jenn L. has posted a huge sign up sheet in the School foyer to encourage community and parent involvement with the children. There’s room to fill in an activity and sign your name beside it – an activity that you would like to coordinate, run, or bring in resource people for. Some suggestions that have been made include karate, dance, boat building, field trips, crafts, and survival skills, but there are so many possibilities. There are talents and a huge reservoir of knowledge in our community that we could pass on to the kids and to each other if we were each to take a little time, commit some energy or spend some afternoons enriching the whole.
The Bunkhouse improvement project has been stalled, at first by slow funding, then by busy personal schedules but there is a push to get it turned into a clean, cosy, inviting space for the winter use of Mom’s and tots especially, and also for the use and enjoyment of the community generally. While waiting for the larger parts of the project to get underway, Claudia and helpers have scoured, cleaned and organized the bunkhouse into a much more welcoming space.
The Surge School has a new blog that can be found at: http://surgeschool.bccoasthost.com/. The blog has been set up by Jenn Reeves and it will continue to improve and expand as everyone climbs the learning curve. The children are close followers of the weather and record each day’s readings in their Sky Watch programme. Now they are also using their new blog to post their observations of the effects of weather events on our local community. Check out the blog for this entertaining feature and also for other school information and useful kid related links.
Every Wednesday, from 2:45 to 3:30, there is an all ages game in the gym. The kind of game varies; this week it was soccer. Adults are invited and encouraged to join the children for an energetic and fun time.
The children have experienced their first hot lunch, provided by PAC’s “Healthy Lunches Programme”. Jenn L. had a lovely table set up in the bunkhouse and served the children an attractive meal of cheese wraps, vegetables, fruit and juice. The kids loved the meal and they displayed good table manners and behaviour throughout, as observed by all the folks who were attending the market day in the other half of the room. Well done Jenn and PAC!
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A job that is waiting for a volunteer to come along: the bunkhouse junk room, on the south side of the entrance walkway, needs to be emptied and all the contents disposed of (town dump?). If you have the energy, please go for it!
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SINGING: ONE MONDAY A MONTH
Singing is back on line. Tina Erickson will be here for singing once a month at 10:00am in the school and then at 11:15 with the adults in the bunkhouse. Exact dates are still to be chosen but we are aiming at MONDAY, November 19 for the next one. Keep tuned for possible changes. Tina is hoping to come to Read on Mondays, not Thurs. this year). We are thinking of every 3rd Monday but future dates will be confirmed.
PAC was able to fund the program completely last year but this year they will have a shortfall. SNCA has agreed to collect and hold donations, (suggestion: what you can afford or $5.00/ person/singing session) and these funds will be used to cover the shortfall and possibly even to buy some extra sessions. Some regular attendees may like to pay a lump sum to SNCA, just for their own convenience. In addition to the session fee SNCA asks that each person also pays a $1.00 Building Use Fee. The suggested total of $6.00 per sing is still a great deal as all of Tina’s other choirs pay $10.00 a time.
We would like to sell tea and coffee, and baked goods after the sing so there will be a chance to refuel and socialize.
If you missed the singing last season, you will want to be sure to mark your calendars this year because it’s a wonderful, fun entertainment, with an excellent, very talented leader. Tina could pull music from a stone so all you folks who “don’t sing” come out anyhow and add your noise to our very non-performance, no-fault choir. Be ready to be surprised!
Come Join Us for a Movie and Social
Come join us for the first movie and social on
Monday October 29th at 12:30 PM - 2 PM
in the library at the Surge School.
Bring your own lunch. Coffee, tea, and treats will be provided.
"The Power of Community" is a highly recommended documentary about how the Cuban people handled their oil crisis with ingenuity, community co-operation and conservation.
This is the first event in a series of movies on loan from the Sierra Club.
For information, contact Shawnai at 203-3924 or by VHF at "Windrose".
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PLAYGROUND PROGRESS
As anyone walking by the school field will notice, Dave and Hazen have done a fine job of clearing and smoothing the new play area site, and placing some log barriers along the road. There is a load of concrete sacks at Quadra Builders awaiting a berth on a future trip of the Gung-ho. When that load arrives, the equipment can be put into position. There is also need for massive quantities of safe fill (such as pea gravel or maybe wood chips) and this must somehow get to the island. If we rely solely on the generous volunteer efforts of the Gung-ho and its crew, this delivery may take some time. Thanks for all the help and effort so far, Harper & crew, Hazen and Dave!
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PLAYGROUND EVOLUTIONS
By Sebastian Matson-Shaw
I feel that someone needs to write a recent history of the Surge playfield and playground. Until now it has just been word of mouth and pictures.
This history of the field dates back to its clearing in 1959 by a young Louis Poitras with a bulldozer. When the school was reopened in 1975-6 the playground equipment consisted of a single monkey bar, a tetherball, and a basketball hoop on a huge cedar tree behind the Quonset hut. Over the years, as the tree grew taller and the roots ran rampant, the basketball playing style of Surge School kids developed into a game of tackle and shooting baskets into a ridiculously high net.
In the summer of 1982 some parents got a summer student works grant for the teens to build a playground and work on the archives of the history of Read Island. The teens of Surge Narrows built a play deck with a slide and ladder, tire swing, pole swing and a row of poles and nets. These were all taken down between 1990 and1995, for safety reasons. The baseball backstop was replaced in 1980 and again in about 2004. Interest in having more playground equipment led PAC members to raise money and buy play structures that will be erected soon in the site cleared by Dave and Hazen. This playground site includes a barrier in between the parking lot, and the playground, which will also be handy because of the speed that most people come down the hill. For safety there is also now a speed bump, which should slow people down. None of this would be possible without the concerted efforts of the parents of students now in the school. Thank you everyone who has made this possible.
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Get ready here we come!
Goblins and Ghosts of Surge School are coming to your door
(along main road, Read Island) after school Oct. 31
Are you ready with tricks and treats?
Spooky fire at Lambert's Beach to follow
Bring your own warm drinks and ghost stories
Everyone Welcome!!!
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REMEMBERING AND RETURNING TO READ
By Heather Shaw
My family moved from the USA to North Rendezvous Island in 1969. They came here to get away from the Vietnam war and to homestead. They built a cabin on North Rendezvous where we lived for five years until the then owner of the island, a friend of my parents from Seattle, decided to sell the island to a logging company. My parents bought land on Read Island in 1973 and we moved to Burdwood Bay.
By then the Gilmore/Moss clan and all their kids had moved to Read Island so along with us Southenders, the Armstrong family from Steamboat Pass and the Port Maurellers there were enough kids for the parents to pressure the school board to reopen the school. My child memories may not be strictly factual, but at the time I think 10 children were required to register to re-open the school; a few kids, who may not have existed or been of school age, crept quietly onto the register book. Life in these parts is ever a balance of creative reality shaping, perspective, and prioritizing right?
The reason I wanted to write in the SNOT rag was that I wanted to tell you a little about what it is like for me to be a parent at Surge School as compared to a kid. The year the parents reopened the school- ‘75-6, I was in kindergarten. It seems like the biggest problem was always how to get us to school. The road was a path with two ruts and grass down the middle and most of the people who lived around Surge or on Maurelle had sailboats with no motors. The result was that by the time we got to school,l either through the mud or the tide, it could be noon or later. My dad, Jim Shaw, and Richard Gillmore got the road maintenance contract and bought a backhoe and a dump truck and started working on the road. The south end parents also co-owned and ran a series of crazy vehicles and I particularly remember riding to school in a big green pickup truck with a wooden house thing with benches in the back. There were around eight of us coming from the south end at that time so I suppose it was worth it. Of course the Pink Pig was memorable too- a pink volkswagon bus held together by a rope. Whatever vehicle we rode in, it always involved lots of us pushing to get it going. Special thanks to Jim Schwartz for being our driver for a year even when he had no kids. I guess he enjoyed the challenges of the kids, the road, and keeping the vehicle going?
The multitude of challenges posed by 5 times a week daily school runs, either by land, mud or sea caused the parents to dream big and buy a float house to keep us in at the Surge dock, so we could go to a 3 day school week. The parents had a care roster where they took turns staying with us and we went to school from 9-4:00 and then from 6:00-8:00 pm three days a week. Food was short so often we were fishing off the dock for lunch or dinner. I remember these times as a mix of hilarity and difficulty. I had my own bunk, we had to bring food and bedding for all three days and, I didn’t always like to eat what the other parents made - cod cheeks and buckwheat were my least favourite. From a parent’s perspective it must have been insane - staying in an old float house on slippery logs tied up to the pilings by the dock with 10 or so hippie brats who probably didn’t believe in authority. I think the school board was forced to get involved when a health inspector came by and saw the situation. I am not sure of the exact course of events but soon the float house was dragged up the hill by a skidder, ( Louis P. no doubt did this), and funding was provided at $5.00 per day per kid for groceries. The float house became a bunkhouse and life went on. Eventually a travel allowance came into existence and some parents were able to get outboard motors, enabling then to arrive on time throughout the tide. Our family bought a horse and I rode him to school, others bought motorcycles and eventually the bunkhouse closed. School went to four days a week. I could write an endless account about our teachers, the revolutions we kids staged, the games we played in the forests, SNOT trips we went on and how great growing up here was in general.
Coming back here with my kids, Sebastian (grade 7) and Ella (kindergarten), has been fun. Times are different in the larger world, the reasons people live out here have changed and thus the community perspective is very different. Regardless, the priorites seem pretty similar: get the kids to school so they can learn and be socialized, no matter what the difficulties. Growing up here gave me a strong sense of belonging to a place and a people. I felt like I had many parents and protectors, teachers and mentors because of the community effort that was put into bringing us kids up, including ensuring we were educated and socialized at school. Today I see that the school facilities are stellar, the teacher is wonderful, and the parents and many community members are devoted to ensuring that the kids are getting a well-rounded education. Kudos to everyone for putting energy into the Surge kids, it will be remembered and will make a difference to them. Together you are forming community and children who will know how to live with others well. I never cared much that I didn’t have ballet, skating lessons or normal basketball skills because in the long run dribbling a ball is not nearly as important a skill as knowing how to get along with each other and make things happen as needed. Hugs to all, here in my extended Surge Narrows Community!
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News items, announcements, opinions, stories, photos and art work are needed for the Rag! The goal is to stimulate communication within the community and to encourage participation in events and programs. Deadline for submissions is the first of each month. Articles and letters may be edited for brevity and clarity. Submit your contribution by e-mail (best method) to judithwright_@hotmail.com (note the underscore before @), OR mail a paper copy to Box 4, V0P 1W0. For short items and notices you may also phone Judith at 250 830 8583.
The Snot Rag is published, usually monthly, by the Surge Narrows Community Association, as a communication tool for the community. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of SNCA.
Directors of SNCA: Rob Wood, Claudia Lake, Judith Wright, Rieko Sevigny, Percy Hart.
SNCA membership is $10.00 annually, payable to the Surge Narrows Community Association, P.O. Box 52, V0P 1W0.
The 50 members of SNCA (counting the directors) for the year October 2006 to October2007 are:
Lise Badchellor, Roger Beriault, Teresa Beyerstein, David Cox, Sally Davies, Bruce Davies, Derek D’Altroy , Pat D’Altroy, Brenda Dempsey, Ken Flager, Cristina Fox, Susan Gilbert, Tom Gilbert, Richard Gilmore, Trudy Hansen, Kare Hansen, George Hawley, Sheila Hollanders, Cameron Humphreys, Jenn Leggett, Clarke Leggett, Jorge Little, Karen Locke, Bill Locke, Rhea MacKenzie, Rachael Mattice, Roger Mattice, Mary Anne Moss, Max Primgaard, Jules Randall, Dale Rolfsen, Gloria Rolfsen, John Robilliard , Marcella Simpson, Eileen Sowerby, Jeanne Stoppard, Tina Thomson, Anne Tonkin, David Trendell, Ginny Vassal, Maya Weichelt, Sandy Welch, Danny Welch, Brody Wilson, Laurie Wood
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